Since the previous inspection, weaknesses in leadership were identified by the school’s governors. With the support of the local authority, they took swift and effective action leading to your appointment, supported by a new deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher. You have brought about considerable change at the school, which has had a positive impact on pupils’ achievement. You have created an ethos within which all staff are motivated and supported to develop their particular skills. Parents and carers, staff and pupils respect the work you have done. Comments from parents show their appreciation of the changes and improvements made since your appointment. One parent said, ‘There is an air of excitement’; and another said that the school is ‘going places’. The school has worked hard to address the action points from the previous inspection report. Teachers give pupils clear guidance on how to make their work better, and this is proving very helpful in ensuring that pupils, particularly the most able, make good progress. Notably, an increasing proportion of pupils are achieving the higher standard in end of key stage tests, particularly in mathematics. Pupils take great pride in their work, behave well and try their best. Teaching assistants make a valuable contribution to supporting pupils’ progress, encouraging them not to give up by helping them to overcome any difficulty they may have. This enables pupils to keep trying even when they find the work challenging. As a result, pupils in the school are making strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Even so, leaders know that there is more to do to raise the attainment of pupils in writing, particularly that of disadvantaged pupils, to that of their peers nationally. You have identified strategies to achieve this and are implementing planned actions to improve the range and quality of pupils’ writing. Governors are knowledgeable and involved in the work of the school. They offer you strong strategic support and are willing to challenge your decisions in order to promote the very best standard of education for pupils. Leaders, including governors, understand that they need to ensure that attendance continues to improve, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff are knowledgeable and clear about their roles and responsibilities in keeping pupils safe. They appreciate the regular training and ‘refreshers’ that they receive. Governors understand their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and visit the school regularly to ensure that safeguarding practice is effective. Recruitment processes and practice are robust. Leaders are proactive in encouraging staff to share any concerns. Response to concerns is appropriate and timely, working well with external agencies. Pupils said that they feel safe and all pupils questioned said that they know whom to talk to if they have a concern. One pupil said that the school is ‘friendly and happy’. The pupils spoken to said that bullying is rare but are confident that, if it did occur, the staff ‘would sort it out straight away’. Inspection findings For the first line of enquiry, we agreed to look at the progress of middle-attaining boys and disadvantaged pupils in writing in key stage 2. This is because these pupils did not progress as well as other pupils in 2017. You have rightly identified this as a priority and have put appropriate actions in place to address it. You have developed a more structured approach to the teaching of writing, which has improved the quality of teaching and learning. The subject leader appreciates the additional training and support that she has been given and, as a result, she has enabled staff to develop their expertise. Pupils said that they enjoy their writing lessons and find them challenging. We saw that teachers and teaching assistants are providing intensive small-group work effectively in key stage 2 to respond to pupils’ needs and improve their performance. Our scrutiny of pupils’ writing and a review of current assessment information provided us with compelling evidence that these groups of pupils are now making good progress. However, we agreed that this would have to be sustained to ensure that more middle-attaining and disadvantaged pupils reach the expected standard. The second line of enquiry was to evaluate the effectiveness of the school’s actions in improving the progress of boys and disadvantaged pupils in reading.